Spacing Out

"It wasn't a man or an animal - it was something different," recalled Katia Andrade, one of three women who claimed to have encountered an extraterrestrial creature in a small town in Brazil.

The creature was oily, rubbery, had brown skin and three protrusions from its head. It stank horrendously. And, according to the women, it appeared to be in terrible pain. 

The incident took place more than two decades ago now, but has plummeted back into public consciousness due to a new documentary released this year. It is among a series of sightings which scientists are scrutinising closely amid a debate about alien ethics.

The Brazil "alien" could prove to be key to our understanding. If such an alien existed and was suffering, this would prove its sentienceThe ability to experience feelings and sensations. - that it could feel pain and pleasure just as humans can. According to animal ethicist Peter Singer, this means that we would be morally obliged to balance its needs against ours. "In other words, the pain of an extraterrestrial counts as much as the pain of an Earthling."

Discussions about legal and ethical rights for aliens are by no means easy. International authorities rarely have open conversations about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, let alone how we can protect it.¹

Others counter that such conversations would be prematureToo soon. . There is no scientific consensus about extraterrestrial species. High-profile scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Avi Loeb have expressed their opinions that Earth is not the only part of the universe to sustain life. But many experts caution against making predictions based on little available evidence.

According to Professor John Zarnecki, "finding life or making contact is always going to be highly unlikely until we do it". An alien encounter could happen at any given time, and there is no such thing as being over-prepared.

Aliens have long intrigued the public. In films like 1982's E.T and 2016's Arrival, for example, protagonists relate to alien intruders who reflect their own feelings of being an outsider. Today, some think we can look to aliens to learn more about ourselves.

Yes: There is no way of telling if or when aliens will arrive, but it is fair to assume that it will happen one day. We need to be prepared for the eventuality, so that we do not let fear overcome our strong ethical values.

No: We want aliens to exist because it helps us to feel less alone in this universe. But the idea that another intelligent lifeform could help us understanding the meaning of our lives is nothing but fanciful thinking.

Or... Even if we never make contact with any other lifeforms in the universe, developing a unified consensus on how to deal with alien ethics could help us to understand our own sense of ethics.